December 20, 2010

NEW HAVEN—A rare and unusual call went against the Bellmont Squaws with just 20 seconds remaining in a tie ball game Saturday night and the result ended up with the New Haven Bulldogs gaining a 38-35 triumph in regulation play.
Bellmont had trailed the entire game until the 4:10 point of the fourth period when two Dana Kaczmarek free throws knotted the score at 33-33. Nearly two minutes later, the Squaws owned their only lead of the night at 35-33 when Payton Schultz hit cousin Madison Schultz with a pass under the basket for a lay-up with 2:16 to play.
A wealth of missed shots, blocked shots, and other turnovers occurred in the next 90 seconds with the Squaws unable to pad their lead and New Haven unable to score as well. With 30 ticks remaining, New Haven's Alisha Huffman hit a jumper that tied the game and then the game got really interesting.
Bellmont had the ball at the top of the key when two Bulldogs pressured guard Allison Gutierrez. A whistle blew with the officials calling a jump ball but the Squaws weren't worried as they owned the possession arrow. However, the officials said Gutierrez did not give the ball back to the nearest official and the ball ended up rolling over near the end of the Bellmont bench.
With 20 seconds to play in a tie game, the officials called Gutierrez for a technical foul for "delay of game." Initially there was confusion at the scorer's table as scorers thought the technical was assessed against Bellmont coach Tory Fuelling but it was soon learned the call went against Gutierrez and that instead of keeping the ball out-of-bounds, Bellmont could only watch as New Haven's Kasey Haas went to the foul line for two shots.
Haas hit the first of two but the double whammy for Bellmont was then assessed since the technical foul against them also gave New Haven the ball out-of-bounds, despite the fact Bellmont would have had the ball had no technical been called.
New Haven fired up an errant shot five seconds later but Bellmont was called for a rebound foul, only their sixth of the game, thus giving the Bulldogs the ball again out-of-bounds without a foul shot. Bellmont pressured the inbounds pass and when it appeared a five second count was imminent, New Haven coach Gary Cobb called a time out just as the ball was inbounded.
Even if the timeout was not granted, which it legally was, time should not have started on the clock until the ball was touched by a player on the floor. The clock ran from :14.6 to :13.9 but no one apparently noticed the discrepancy and the clock was left at :13.9.
Bellmont was forced to foul again and with :12.4 to go, Haas revisited the foul line. This time she made both charity tosses for a 38-35 advantage.
Fuelling called a final BHS 60 second timeout to set up plans for a three-point shot. The Squaws quickly got the ball into the front court but appeared to be confused about time remaining. Kaczmarek got off a 20-foot shot with about a second to play and a Bulldog in her face. The ball grazed off the front of the rim at the horn giving New Haven the win.
When asked following the game if he would like to comment, Fuelling simply said "I'd better not."
The Squaws looked like anything but a basketball team in the opening quarter as New Haven jumped out to a 12-3 lead at the end of the period and when Kiersten Perkins nailed a trey to start the second period, the Dawgs held their largest lead of the game at 15-3.
The Squaws whittled a little bit of that lead off as Madison Schultz hit back-to-back hoops, Sara Williamson contributed five points including a traditional three-point play, and Taylor Kuhnle put in an offensive rebound to knock the score to 23-14 at the half.
New Haven committed nine turnovers in the third period and Bellmont outscored the Bulldogs by four points from the foul line to trail by just five going into the final period. Kaczmarek's only basket of the night followed by a free throw when she was fouled cut the game to 32-31 in the fourth and then set the stage for the 33-33 tie when Kaczmarek swished both free throws as she was hammered driving to the basket.
Neither team played fundamentally well in the final period with a total of 13 turnovers being committed.
Haas led the Bulldogs in scoring with 15 while Destiny Beard added 10. Huffman tallied seven points but led all rebounders in the game with 12. For Bellmont, Madison Schultz cashed in 10 points while Payton Schultz had nine and seven rebounds and Kaczmarek scored seven while grabbing five steals.
In the junior varsity game, Bellmont persevered during an ugly first period to gain a 15-9 halftime lead and finished New Haven off with a final 29-21 victory.
Audrey Schultz again led the JV Squaws in scoring with 12 while Megan Schueler added six, Courtney Scherer had five, Ivy Settlemeyer tallied four, and Brooke Zimmerman had two.
The Squaws return to action tonight at Adams Central with the reserve game slated for a 6 p.m. start.